Accused UC Irvine Professor Had A Violent Past

IRVINE (CBS) — UC Irvine professor Rainer K. Reinscheid, accused of plotting the murder of 200 high school students, has a violent past, according to a story exclusive to CBS2 and KCAL9.

Stacey Butler, reporting for both stations, scored court documents that show the professor is not someone who just snapped after the suicide of his son. “He was a ticking time bomb,” she reported.

He has a violent past that includes a former wife filing a restraining order.

Butler tried to speak to Reinscheid, who is at the Orange County jail being held without bail, but he declined comment.

Butler says court documents reveal Reinscheid was violent long before the death of his son. “He was not some bereft father.”

Zhen Wei, his ex-wife, said Reinscheid choked and assaulted her in February 2010. She said the attack left her with “swelling and redness around my neck.”

She also said he strangled her in front of their then 4-year-old son, Tim Wei Reinscheid.

In documents she filed with the court, she wrote, “He pushed me against a wall and grabbed me by my neck area around my jawline with both hands…very forcefully, choking me, and I had to stand on my toes to breathe.”

She got a restraining order but never filed formal charges. Those charges were later dropped, reports Butler.

And records also show it wasn’t the first time he got violent. Wei referred to another incident in 2009 where he pushed her around. She said she began to fear him.

Whei said Reinscheid, a German national, had a desire to return to his native country and leave Orange County if he lost his job due to the restraining order.